DIONYSOS

Having broken up in 74, Dionysos reformed in 76 and released a eponymous album that usually received the name Changé D'Addresse, referring to the sleeve's artwork, this is the only original album that is legally available in CD format (due to a 35th anniversary), so far in 07. The group is now a sextet having added wind/keys player JP Forget and replaced their bassist with Durand.

Sonically, however the difference is quite striking, as Dionysos is now heavily jazz-tinged group, having lost much of its characteristic hard edged so present in their first two albums. Actually, this one even hesitates a bit between jazz-rock and straight jazz, but eventually the album is well in the rock realm. While being progressive in its essence with its jazz side, the album holds limited interest for progheads, outside of tracks like Pit Buick, C'est Comme Ca and the longer Osti'd Problème (friggin' problem) that do bring you back to their previous album's enthusiasm, even if jazzier this time around. One of the thing that transpires when listening to this album is that all of the musicians have gotten much better at their trade, but the music on the album doesn't allow to show it as much as previously.

Other (short) tracks (all of them bar two, below the 4-min) are either boring (the slow rocker opening T'Attends Ton Train and the atrocious rockabilly Yvette) or extremely slow (Chanson sans Our is reminiscent of the slower Claude Nougaro) or unexceptional (dare I say downright averagey-average?) such as the aptly titled instrumental Retro, the up- tempo Reveille and the acoustic outro Flou Pas Fou ditty.

On the whole, what makes this album fail compared to their previous two is the noticeable lack of enthusiasm as if thy actually believed no more and a bit going through the motions. And of course when this happens, you know it won't. For fans only.